Charles Mallory Hatfield (July 15, 1875January 12, 1958) was an American "rainmaker".

Early life

Hatfield was born in Fort Scott, Kansas, on July 15, 1875. His father, Stephen, a property speculator, moved the family to Southern California in 1886, settling first in San Diego, where Hatfield Sr built three houses. He later built a home on a forty-acre ranch and olive grove at Gopher Canyon near Bonsall, forty miles north of the city.

In 1904, promoter Fred Binney began a public relations campaign for Hatfield. A number of Los Angeles ranchers saw his ads in newspapers and promised Hatfield $50 to produce rain. In February, Hatfield and his brother Paul built an evaporating tower at La Crescenta where Hatfield released his mixture into the air. Hatfield's attempt was apparently successful, so the ranchers paid him $100. Contemporary weather bureau reports described the rain as a small part of a storm that was already coming, but Hatfield's supporters disregarded this. For this effort, Hatfield had built his tower on the grounds of the Esperanza Sanitarium in Altadena, near Rubio Canyon.

In 1906, Hatfield was invited to the Yukon Territory, where he agreed to create rain for the water-dependent mines of the Klondike goldfields. The Klondike contract was for $10,000, but after unsuccessful efforts, Hatfield slipped away, collecting only $1,100 for expenses. This failure did not deter his supporters.

In 1915, the San Diego City Council, pressured by the San Diego Wide Awake Improvement Club, approached Hatfield to produce rain to fill the reservoir of Morena Dam. Hatfield offered to produce rain for free, then charge $1,000 per inch ($393.7 per centimetre) for between and free again over . The council voted four to one for a $10,000 fee, payable when the reservoir was filled. A formal agreement was never drawn up, though Hatfield continued based on verbal understanding. Hatfield, with his brother, built a tower beside Lake Morena and was ready early in the New Year. Dry riverbeds filled to the point of flooding. Worsening floods destroyed bridges, marooned trains and cut phone cables - not to mention flooding homes and farms. Two dams, Sweetwater Dam and one at Lower Otay Lake, overflowed. Rain stopped on 20 January but resumed two days later. On January 27 Lower Otay Dam broke, increasing the devastation and reportedly causing about 20 deaths (accounts vary on the exact number).

Hatfield talked to the press on February 4 and said that the damage was not his fault and that the city should have taken adequate precautions. Hatfield had fulfilled the requirements of his contract—filling the reservoir—but the city council refused to pay the money unless Hatfield would accept liability for damages; there were already claims worth $3.5 million. Besides, there was no written contract. Hatfield tried to settle for $4000 and then sued the council. Later the Bear Valley Mutual Water Company wanted to fill Big Bear Lake. However, during the Great Depression he had to return to his work as a sewing machine salesman. His wife Mable divorced him in 1931, claiming in the divorce settlement that Hatfield had hidden some of his earnings from her. Hollywood invited Hatfield to the premiere. The play also became the basis of a Broadway Musical, 110 in the Shade.

In T. Jefferson Parker's 2007 novel Storm Runners, Charles Hatfield's fictional great-great-granddaughter takes up his research.

Charles Hatfield and the San Diego flood was featured in a 2016 episode of the White Rabbit Project on Netflix.

Charles Hatfield and his rainmaking endeavors are mentioned in Chapter One of Mark Arax's 2019 book, "The Dreamt Land."

Charles Hatfield and the San Diego flood is the subject of The Wizard of Sun City: The Strange, True Story of Charles Hatfield, The Rainmaker Who Drowned a City's Dreams by Garry Jenkins.

See also

  • Cloud seeding

References

Further reading

  • San Diego History
  • A Rainmaker Meets His Match, Ephrata, Wash., 1920